We have previously discussed the disgusting fetish for “crush videos” — films where small animals and birds are crushed under stiletto heels, boots and objects or stabbed to death. Now, Ashley Nichole Richards, 23, and Brent Wayne Justice, 52, have been given long sentences for their roles in making such videos. Richards was sentenced to 10 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to three counts of animal cruelty while Justice, 52, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for cruelty to animals.
Justice filmed Richards who would appear scantily dressed as she stabbed animals including a puppy, a kitten and a chicken. In addition to chopping off their limbs, she would also sometimes urinate on them while making sexual comments to the camera. What is truly frightening is not just people like this who would make such films but the demand for such films worldwide.
These sentences offer a badly needed deterrent for those who make and distribute such films.
Source: Chronicle
Regardless of how one defines/applies the acronym PETA for/to themselves (“People for Ethical Treatment of Animals”, or “People for Eating Tasty Animals”), members of both groups should see the actions of this couple as inhuman/e. Don’t they know Adult ‘snuff’ videos pay much better ….
not because they cant speak our language it doesn’t mean they have to be abushed. what they were doing was wrong.
There must be a country other than ours where these monsters could spend the rest of their lives.
@icon jack
Women get reduced sentences because they’re just womenn. Texas has one of the highest incarceration rates and the highest conviction rate. 97% of criminals take the plea deal rather than face the State head on. The rest face very severe sentences.
A plea deal gives either party a reduced deal. Since Richards is the participant who actually killed those animals while Justice filmed her doing it, Richards should have gotten 50 years. Since our prosecutors are so willing to make a plea deal with a woman, she gets a reduced sentece.
Now, if the gender were reversed and Richards were filming Justice killing those animals, making sexual comments, and urinating… Richards still would get the plea deal while Justice may still get 50 years.
Those plea deal bargains are what’s helping women get off; not men.
So a black guy gets 50 years for this horrible crime in Texas, and a white spoiled brat gets probation for killing FOUR decent people! Yeah, Justice is great in Texas alright. This sentence is excessive for the crime and a waste of prison cell. Send him to a psych ward to be locked up and motivated to not do such things again. THAT is a more reasonable use of our resources.
Hey Linn, who are you married to Hannibal Lecter?
Racist sentence.
Give them to Michael Flatley for use as a practice floor.
Renegade’s comments are spot on. I am a vegetarian. My husband, who is a dick, and by that I mean first name, will eat any kind of meat. We went to a restaurant in Thailand and they had a “monkey table”. A live monkey was entrapped with his head sticking out of a hole in the middle of the table. When the guests (us) were seated the waiter slashed his head open with a machete and the dinners dug in with chop sticks on the brain. Yeah.
Why the disparity in sentences.
Was he actually five times more culpable?
Weren’t they in an equal conspiracy?
I sense gender bias being applied, as is usual.
Gary T – she rolled over on him and he took it to trial. Plus, he went pro per.
Renegade,
Recent newspaper story in Louisville indicates that 10,000 hogs are killed, per day, by electrocution from a stick, but they are changing it to suffocating them. Hmmmm.
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2016/01/22/louisville-hog-plant-change-killing-method/79134144/
Now, this should be a benchmark for other perversions, such as child pornography, etc. If this guy is made to spend the rest of his life in jail for this then anyone abusing a child for similar reasons should be put away for life. It would be interesting to compare jail times.
Darren – thanks for the update. Nice to know she got the lower sentence because she rolled over on her accomplice. Thought the attempt to prove there was a kosher way to kill dogs was the highlight of the trial. 🙂
Further information on the state’s case may be read HERE. It is interesting.
For Mr. Justice, the court sentenced him to the highest penalty I have ever seen on an animal cruelty conviction. But it “ain’t over” for this depraved monster. He is also facing a federal charge for the same acts. His federal case was dismissed on first amendment grounds but the government appealed. The fifth circuit reversed and the SC denied certiorari. Here are some documents.
https://jonathanturley.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/justice-5th-circuit-opinion-crush-video-case.pdf
https://jonathanturley.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/brent-justice-federal-status-report-december-2015.pdf
Oh I forgot, go to Asia and try the monkey meat and the stuffed belly of a rice hound..a small mongrel. Tried the monkey. But just could not get past the sight of the puppy belly from an engorged dog.
I deplore the described acts if just for what most would describe as depraved obscene behavior. On the other hand, I guess catching chickens, hanging them by their feet upside down from the strung-out ropeline and then cutting their heads off one by one so they bleed out for the next phase of plucking and dressing (odd word that) them out for Sunday dinner for the family and ranch hands is just life on the farm.
Then there is the roping, castrating, dehorning and branding of your prime rib still on the hoof. (Ahh the smell of burnt calfskin in the afternoon…kind of like napalm in the morning somewhere else…still with the Stetson tho.) All part of the great annual roundup in early Summer on the ranch, while the attentive birth cow looks on. (Redundant to say “mama” cow, much less female cow.) You ought to be there. Folks have a great sense of accomplishment at the end of the roundup. But at least it’s not as though we, who eat the product, have danced on, peed on and otherwise tortured them, Who would eat a kitten?
Go out to a major stockyard or slaughter house sometime. Catch the offloading from cattle cars after a cold or steaming hot rail transit.
Yes I still love my beef, pork and chicken. Just don’t want to see any of them tortured before the pieces find their way to my BBQ. Fish instead anybody? They’re cold blooded just like alligator and turtles which are delicacies as well but obviously less than mammal life forms.
Excuse me, my ham dinner is waiting for me. Tomorrow morning, maybe I’ll have some sowbelly strips.
I suppose a lot of factors went into determining the appropriate sentence for each. Perhaps he got a much longer sentence because he is more than twice her age and likely took a leading role. Or he may have had priors. In any case, I am surprised and heartened that Texas takes animal cruelty seriously. More states should do so. In addition to the abuse suffered by the helpless animal, it is known to be a gateway to killing people. Most serial killers got their start torturing and killing animals.
Fifty years? I hate people who abuse animals and do so for some sick or retarded reason. But fifty is a long time. I am surprised. Yet, as an animal pal, I agree. It will keep her off the streets for a while. The mice in her cell won’t fare well.
Why does he get 50 years while she gets 10?